(CNN)While the impact of the massive bombing raids during World War II left deep and obvious scars on the land, a new study suggests that the shockwaves reached the edge of space as well. As a result, those shockwaves actually weakened Earth’s upper atmosphere, called the ionosphere.
The discovery was made recently after researchers analyzed daily records from the Radio Research Station at Ditton Park near Slough, England. There, routine measurements of the ionosphere were taken from 1933 to 1996, “the longest continuous set of ionospheric measurements in the world,” according to the study published Tuesday in the journal Annales Geophysicae.
“What they didn’t realize at the time was that the [ionsopheric records] actually contain the signatures of the actual war itself,” said Chris Scott, study author and University of Reading professor of space and atmospheric physics.
